The contribution of the TEFL 496 course to your professional development as a prospective teacher by Ezgi Hazal KÖK:
Throughout our four-year university program, we have had a chance to take two translation courses, which are English to Turkish and Turkish to English. Though our department is on foreign language education, the program offers these two courses since as a language teacher you need to know different areas and understand spoken and written foreign language quite well to teach it in every aspect.
Thanks to these courses, I have had an opportunity to encounter different sources in terms of academically and colloquially and to learn how to cope with some problems in translating materials especially from Turkish to English. Moreover, translation contributes to my native and foreign language. That you have to make drafts and revise your work when translating is making you consider all aspects of your English and Turkish at the same time; such as cultures, norms and structures of a particular language, etc. So, I see that I need to improve my vocaulary repertoire in both languages. For years since I mostly focus on English, I have realized that my native language is getting worse. Through this course and the other translation course, I have had a chance to see the areas that I need to improve.
Reading many articles on this area, I have learned about the problems a translator might confront with, translation theories we can consider, and some techniques we can use. Through our discussions in the class, I have internalized the issues and had a chance to see different perspectives.
With the help of translation project, now I have become a person, who knows how to tell about our culture. This is important for me because foreigners wonder how it is like when you are abroad. For example, in the USA I had great difficulty in talking about our customs on Turkish coffee. I couldn't find the words I needed. However, I can tell anything about Turkish coffee now since my friends and I have preferred searching for Turkish coffee and making our project on that. Also, I recognize that my discourse knowledge is not enough to translate materials by sense-for-sense. In addition, I realize that I think so academically that I translate anything by word-for-word, sometimes which cannot give intentions or emotions. Now, before translating, I'm trying to keep my mind that I need to take the writer's main message and his intention into consideration in order to make translated work as much as close to the original one.
My only suggestion for this course and the other translation course is that the students are encouraged to find their own sources to translate. The reason is that not all students become a translator or a teacher. They, more or less, know what they want to do and what they want to become. So I think that throughout the course there shouldn't be a must to translate something the professor likes but something the students like. I make this suggestion because I get much more efficiency from the material that I chose to translate for final. That was my interest and I really enjoyed it.
I think that translation courses should be offerred to students by this program in the following years in order to let them have the same chances and opportunities as I did.
The contribution of the TEFL 496 course to your professional development as a prospective teacher by Ezgi Hazal KÖK:
Throughout our four-year university program, we have had a chance to take two translation courses, which are English to Turkish and Turkish to English. Though our department is on foreign language education, the program offers these two courses since as a language teacher you need to know different areas and understand spoken and written foreign language quite well to teach it in every aspect.
Thanks to these courses, I have had an opportunity to encounter different sources in terms of academically and colloquially and to learn how to cope with some problems in translating materials especially from Turkish to English. Moreover, translation contributes to my native and foreign language. That you have to make drafts and revise your work when translating is making you consider all aspects of your English and Turkish at the same time; such as cultures, norms and structures of a particular language, etc. So, I see that I need to improve my vocaulary repertoire in both languages. For years since I mostly focus on English, I have realized that my native language is getting worse. Through this course and the other translation course, I have had a chance to see the areas that I need to improve.
Reading many articles on this area, I have learned about the problems a translator might confront with, translation theories we can consider, and some techniques we can use. Through our discussions in the class, I have internalized the issues and had a chance to see different perspectives.
With the help of translation project, now I have become a person, who knows how to tell about our culture. This is important for me because foreigners wonder how it is like when you are abroad. For example, in the USA I had great difficulty in talking about our customs on Turkish coffee. I couldn't find the words I needed. However, I can tell anything about Turkish coffee now since my friends and I have preferred searching for Turkish coffee and making our project on that. Also, I recognize that my discourse knowledge is not enough to translate materials by sense-for-sense. In addition, I realize that I think so academically that I translate anything by word-for-word, sometimes which cannot give intentions or emotions. Now, before translating, I'm trying to keep my mind that I need to take the writer's main message and his intention into consideration in order to make translated work as much as close to the original one.
My only suggestion for this course and the other translation course is that the students are encouraged to find their own sources to translate. The reason is that not all students become a translator or a teacher. They, more or less, know what they want to do and what they want to become. So I think that throughout the course there shouldn't be a must to translate something the professor likes but something the students like. I make this suggestion because I get much more efficiency from the material that I chose to translate for final. That was my interest and I really enjoyed it.
I think that translation courses should be offerred to students by this program in the following years in order to let them have the same chances and opportunities as I did.